Three area athletes All-America track and field honors

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Three area athletes earned All-America honors at the USATF Youth Outdoor Track and Field Championships, including ex-Northside High School standout James Rowland in three events.

Staff Report

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Three area athletes earned All-America honors at the USATF Youth Outdoor Track and Field Championships, including ex-Northside High School standout James Rowland in three events.

Rowland, who graduated from Northside this year, earned All-America honors in the shot put, discus and hammer at the six-day event at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville at the end of last month.

Samantha Layko, who won the state 2-A champion in the discus this past spring as a sophomore at Croatan High School, earned All-America honors in the hammer and javelin.

Both Rowland and Layko ran for The Pride Track and Field Program, which is based out of Jacksonville and overseen by overseen by Rowland’s father, Mike.

Also earning All-American honors was Jacksonville’s Maya Stanley in the javelin and shot put. Stanley, running unattached in the girls’ 13-14 age group, was fourth in both the javelin with a throw of 87 feet, 7 inches and shot put at 36-3 1/2.

She was also 10th in the discus at 87-0.

Rowland, competing in the 17-18 boys’ age group, was second in the shot put with a throw of 55-4 3/4, 3 inches shy of the winning throw. He was also fifth in the hammer (184-4) along with eighth in the discus (153-11).

Layko, competing in the 15-16 girls’ age group, was second in the hammer at 134-3 — the winning throw was 159-10 — third in the javelin (107-6). Layko, who won the state discus title with a throw of 122-1, was 15th in the discus at nationals at 104-9.

The top eight made the finals and earned All-America honors at the meet.

The three are scheduled to return to the track July 22-28 to compete in the Junior Olympic National Championships at N.C. A&T University in Greensboro.